In the field of art relating to the shipping and storage of bulk food products including milk, soft drinks, fruit punch, natural juices such as orange juice, alcoholic beverages such as beer, and other beverages, cases are filled with the containers or bottles, and stacked on pallets in vertical stacks of four to eight cases, for transport and distribution. Cases may be stacked on pallets in several different configurations based on the pallet footprint. Typical pallets will be stacked from four to six cases high depending on the pallet size. Each case may contain, for example, four gallon size containers, 9 half gallon containers, 16 quart size containers, or 96 pint size containers, and each case can weigh as much as 50 or 60 pounds when full. See U.S. Pat. No. 6,591,986, for example.
Pallets that support stackable cases are the most widespread form of shipping product for the retail or food service industry and the cases are the only returnable, reusable shipping mechanism considered by the industry.
The popular concept of a method of moving stacked loads in a warehouse involves the engagement of the pallet by fork lifts to lift the load and move it to any desired location without the application of any manual effort. Unfortunately, there are many warehousing operations, such as in soft drink, milk, and beer bottling plants, supermarkets, and the like, where there is insufficient room to permit movement of the loads by a lift truck or a two-wheeled dolly, hence such stacked loads must often be manually shifted when movement is desired.
Moving these stacks manually imposes a substantial strain on the back and arm muscles, and can result in debilitating injuries to the workers
Because it is not possible to shift the load by pushing because the stacks may topple, it is therefore necessary to manually grasp a lower portion of the load while supporting the top, and apply a pulling force to effect the movement of the stacked load. Manually moving these stacks imposes substantial straining of the back, shoulder and arm muscles of the workers, and can result in debilitating injuries.
Tools, such as the telescopically extending tool shown in FIG. 1, is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,171,052, have been proposed for use in engaging the lower portion of the stack while supporting the upper stack by hand, in order to prevent the need for bending and twisting of the back muscles, and thus minimize the opportunity for causing a sprained back.
However, such tools fail to have a means for absorbing shock when they are fully extended, or when met with resistance, such as from the loads catching, for example. Consequently, injuries to arms, shoulders and backs may still occur.
There remains a need in the art, however, for an improved tool which can be used for manually moving such stacked cases.
All published documents, including all U.S. patent documents, mentioned anywhere in this application are hereby expressly incorporated herein by reference in their entirety. Any copending patent applications, mentioned anywhere in this application are also hereby expressly incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.